"about misleading journalism"

I have some thing about Huffington Post. I kind of like it, but I hate it's slipshod journalistic practices. So, it's just like 99% of all American journalism. Today, there was an article about a woman who moved to Charlotte, NC and found the local Occupy Wallstreet movement. OK, but,

“Jason Cherkis, or whoever wrote the front page headline to his article, and Huffington Post need to mature a bit journalistically. On the front page is a picture of a very serious, accusatory-looking President Obama paired with the headline, " There's a level of intimidation coming into this." Then, once the article is read you see that Obama did not say these words nor is he a focus of the article. By the time I finished this post I see the article has been moved to the Politics page. Whatever. The point is that Huffington Post needs to match pictures and headlines with the article since it is obvious HP wants to be taken seriously.” That was the comment I left on HP.

It's not so new, this hit or miss journalism. I had the wonderful life experiences of working in both "old-style" radio and "old-style" newspaper journalism. I was a proofreader for the Amarillo Globe News back around 1966-67. One night I wandered over to the teletype room and saw a series of pictures with captions from the Associated Press. The pictures showed an American GI in Viet Nam interrogating a suspected Viet Cong captive. The first several pictures showed a calm scene of the two men with captions like, "GI questions Viet Cong suspect." There was a picture captioned, "GI offers water to Viet Cong suspect," accompanied by a shot of the GI offering his canteen. Then came the shocker - the "suspect" was restrained on the ground, a handkerchief over his face, and the GI was pouring water from the canteen onto the handkerchief! He was waterboarding the man! But, back then we didn't know the term waterboarding. So, any newspaper could show either the entire series or simply pick and choose. The Amarillo Globe News only ran the picture of the offer of water.

And to think how far we have fallen in journalistic practices when we were already so low!

Well, gosh, two can play at this game click here to see the fantastic Cher promoting none other than yours truly (what else, there's my name in the background)!

"about the corruption of "reporting" vs. blogging"

This morning Jason Linkins put up something on Huffington Post. You can read it here. From the headline on, Mr. Linkins is distorting reality which is what much of today's "reporting" and blogging are. Whatever Huffington or Mr. Linkins call it, it's a blog, but I know many or most people will read it as a "news story." I have seen the same things done in AP news so I'll be on the lookout for one to share because they do pretend to be a news outlet. I'm not sure what Huffington claims to be NOW, but they ain't much different from when what's-her-name ran it.
First of all the headline reads, "Ron Paul's Tampa Hopes Hinge On Cornhusker Convention Chaos," but NOWHERE  in the story does he describe anything except Ron Paul bakers USING THE RULES to support their candidate! You see, in America today, peasants aren't supposed to use the political system - that would be chaos! Here's the sinister description Mr. Linkins gives to the Ron Paul supporter's plan:

"First, meet up the night before to get everyone on the same page about who to vote for, including the convention chair. Second, get to the convention several hours ahead of everyone else to avoid being caught in line during registration. Third, vote for the convention chair.
The Daily Paul writer says “Stay sharp and show up in force!” The writer then orders (emphasis added) Mr. Paul’s supporters to make sure that the convention chair is put up for a vote, and tells them to make sure voting machines are not used to count delegate votes."

Mr. Linkins does not think smart, planned political actions from the peasants is a good idea. He also writes that, "...  it's been well known for some time that Paul's supporters plan to descend (emphasis added) on Tampa in force." How dare they? Anyway, everyone who FLYS into Tampa will descend, will they not? But, Mr. Linkins doesn't mean it that way. He means like a flock of vultures, like pickpockets will descend upon London during the Olympic Games.

Furthermore,  "... if it looks like Paul isn't getting the full measure of what he's entitled to in Tampa, trust me -- it will be hell with the lid off."  It would be HELL if the Ron Paul backers demand their legal rights! HELL?

"Of particular interest:," opines Mr. Linkins, "no matter what happens in Nebraska, Paul's supporters on the convention floor already have the leverage they need to force some chaos (emphasis added) in the process that officially nominates the vice president."

This shows the extent to which our nation has grown back to the Loyalist stance pre-1776. Much of the U.S. wants a king or a dictator. ALL the media bombard us with stories that imply that only the Presidential vote matters. ObamaCare is ALL Obama's fault. No, excuse me, it was passed into law by Congress and upheld my the Supreme Court. Oh, but all that is too complicated. Let's just focus on - OBAMA. 

And let's be dismissive of a democratic process that doesn't put money into media pockets. You know, like Ron Paul didn't spend the kind of money Romney did on advertising, so how can he possibly matter?

HP is neither a newspaper nor does it print objective reporting so why should it hire reporters? HP is "entertainment" and the articles are blogs, and that's the way it was under the previous owner, too. I just can't break away from it, though. I mean where else can I go to see all those "wardrobe malfunctions", and Miley's "too short" shorts, and sexy stuff without being ashamed of my browser history? And where else on Huffington Post does the PICTURE MATCH THE HEADLINE?